Say cheese! says the photographer, while I’m sitting on a chair to get my picture taken for my ID card. You get one picture without a smile and one as a bonus with a smile. I was very happy about the no smiling rule for the ID card. I have a thing about smiling.
It’s not that I have an issue with laughing. I am blessed with a very good sense of humour. It’s just that I freeze once I have to smile and that’s not without reason.. In 2009 I got surprised by Bell’s disease. One moment I’m fine and the next my face was paralized on one side. It was like there was an ‘out of order’ sign placed, total botox.. First I thought, oh my goodness… is this going to be OK. I recovered nicely. The only thing I still had was a phobia for pictures. If I was asked to pose and smile, one of my eyes goes sabbatical. . It’s also happens when I’m very tired.
Until October of 2014 I used to avoid cameras. What made me change? I became me. A wonderful person including an eye with a will of it’s own. In October 2014 I spent a whole day dressed as a present for a event. Looking back on that day I see that it was also a present to myself. Overcoming my insecurity about my eye. Realizing that I am a fun person with lots to offer. That day was a challenge, because I knew the risk of having my picture taking was 100%. That day I let go of my issue with the eye.
Whenever we smile, there are 2 potential muscles we activate. The first one is the zygomaticus major and it controls the corners of your mouth. Whenever this muscle only is activated, it’s not actually a genuine smile. Scientists call this also the “social” smile. The second muscle, known to show sincerity is the obicularis occuli and it encircles our eye socket.
The true smile also called the duchenne smile, named after the famous scientist who first separated the “mouth corners”-only smile, from the “eye socket”
My issue is.. the eye socket. It has a way of taking a nap. I thought of a solution with my Easter outfit.. but that would be an odd thing to ware during the rest of the year.
It seems that smiling is very good for our health. Smiling reduces stress that your body and mind feel, almost similar to getting a good sleep according to recent studies. And smiling helps to generate more positive emotions within you. That’s why we often feel happier around children – they smile more. On average, they do so 400 times a day. Whilst happy people still smile 40-50 times a day, the average of us only does so 20 times.
I try to be as relaxed as possible when there are cameras around and I remind my self that people will turn a blind eye for me. Its about who I am and not what my eye looks like. 
